More than a Monster
by rainn133
Summary: Sarah Crawford is a skin-walker. Having found her long lost brother, the pair track down and try to exact revenge on the monsters who turned Sarah. They live "peacefully", that is until the Winchesters arrive in town and discover Sarah. Rated T for violence and language.
1. Chapter 1

Sarah Crawford stood in front of her brother. The rundown apartment he now lived in smelled of mold and moth balls, which irritated her nose greatly. The boy she had once known long ago was far different now. His short black hair had grown to touch his broad shoulders and his thin wiry frame had bulked causing his head to look less ridiculously large. His crooked nose still bent slightly to the left from the childhood beating he had taken. His dark brown eyes were locked to hers. Sarah shifted awkwardly as they stood in silence.

Jeremy broke the silence. "I-" he gulped. "I thought you were dead." The words were a whisper but her new ears had heard them as clear as a bell.

"I know," was all she could think of. It had been four years since the house fire and her supposed death. It had taken her nearly all that time to track down Jeremy. Their father had died in the fire, and she was thought to have.

"Where have you been?" Jeremy moved towards Sarah, who cringed away. Human contact was something she was not used too.

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me." Her bother gave her the look. With a sigh, she relented. "I was…" She searched for the least freakish way to break the news. "I was with the people who caused the fire."

Her brother stared at her. It was a blank almost unreadable stare. He blinked twice before speaking. "What the hell were you doing with those people?" He was more in disbelief than anger.

"Something happened to me that night and I had to come with them," Sarah fidgeted with the end of her shirt. "I didn't stay with them, I left not even a week later." She was desperate to get him to understand.

"Why didn't you find me when you left?"

"I don't know. I was scared and I needed time to figure out what I was and how to control everything and-"

"What do you mean 'what you are'?" It was Jeremy's turn to cringe away.

"Jer," Sarah's voiced cracked with the use of her brothers nick name. "I- I'm not human."

More silence. Jeremy looked her up and down several times. "You look human."

"Promise you won't scream?" The siblings stared at each other and when Jeremy finally nodded, Sarah changed.

The process wasn't painful. In fact, it felt normal. Even the first time she changed, she felt right. Being in her new form _was_ normal. She had spent four years as the collie Sarah had become more dog than human.

Jeremy stumbled backwards and tripped on the leg of the coffee table. He fell back and hit his head on the floor. Sarah padded towards him and licked his face once. His eyes opened and the brother she had once known looked at her in such a way that she had only seen it once before and that was when he had obtained his new nose.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sarah**

It took three hours to calm Jeremy down. He screamed and freaked at first. Then got angry, then drunk, and finally passed out. Sarah waited patiently for him the next morning. When the twenty-four year old did wake, she was making breakfast.

"Oh god." Jeremy stumbled into the kitchen.

"Good morning to you too," Sarah said irritably.

"So last night," Jeremy asked, keeping his distance. "It was all real?" Sarah nodded, her hair falling over her eyes as she pushed the cereal around the bowl. "And you can turn into a dog?" Sarah nodded again. Jeremy groaned and collapsed onto the couch. "My sister, who I thought was dead, has been living out her life as a dog?" his question was meant to be rhetorical but Sarah answered anyway.

"Technically I'm a skin-walker, and I didn't spend the past four years as a dog."

Jeremy mumbled under his breath. "I heard that you ass." Sarah growled. Jeremy looked at her.

"Whatever." He ran his fingers through his hair. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"I was in town and I heard you were here, so I looked for you."

"Why were you in town? And what have you been doing for the past four years?"

"Basically the same answer for both questions, I was tracking down the skin-walkers that changed me."

"Changed you?" Jeremy sat forward, staring at her.

"Well, to become a skin-walker, you have to be bitten by a skin-walker. The night of the fire, the ones that changed me came to the house and bit me. They torched the place and took me with them. I was unconscious at the time so it wasn't exactly hard to do."

"So they kidnapped you?"

"Yeah, basically." Sarah sighed. "They tried to make me like them, conformed to some weird society of human dog things. I wanted nothing of it especially once they told me what I had to do." Sarah fell quiet.

"What did you have to do?" Concern and fear filled her brothers voice.

"Kill someone." Sarah whispered the words. "They wanted me to eat someone's heart."

Jeremy looked at her. His eyes were locked on her and he began to tremble. "Did you-?"

"No," Sarah cut him off. "I left before that. I was on my own for a while and they let me be for a while, but then they sent others after me."

"What happened?"

"I," Sarah looked away from her brother. "I killed them."

It was silent for a moment, then Jeremy spoke. "Good." Sarah looked up at her brother. That was not what she was expecting.

"Good?" Sarah moved toward her brother. "How is that good? I killed people. Not just the first ones but others too. That's why I'm here, to kill people, you can't possible think that is a good thing!"

"Sarah," Jeremy stood and met her gaze. "They were monsters. They turned you into a dog! They deserved to die."

"I murdered people, Jeremy."

"Have you killed anyone who isn't a skin-whatever?"

"Skin-walker, and no."

"Then you didn't murder people, Sarah, you murdered monsters."

"But I'm a monster too."

"No you're not."

* * *

**Jeremy**

Jeremy eventually convinced Sarah. But more than that he joined her. Her quest to kill the monsters that changed her became his too. Surprising to him, the world of monsters was a lot bigger than half human half dogs. It came packed with secrets. Demons, werewolves, ghosts and vampires were among a few. Killing the skin-walkers was only half the job. In truth, Jeremy was in it to protect Sarah, if not from the skin-walkers than from herself.

He had little knowledge of this new world but picked up quickly. The life style wasn't easy, the pack of skin-walkers moved, changing several in a city before moving to the next. After several months of this, a new threat immerged. These weren't monsters but men. Men and women who like Jeremy had knowledge of the hidden world of monsters. They called themselves Hunters. Most they met worked jobs with them or just passed by. The ones who they worked with gave them knew knowledge and a good cover.

Sarah and Jeremy became Hunters, but they never bothered with demons or ghosts. They had one target. Their start-up cover story was simple enough and close enough to the truth that if anyone investigated it wouldn't be questioned. A brother and sister pair avenging the death of their father and sister, killed by skin-walkers.

Keeping Sarah's secret was easy at times, but she could be reckless. More than once Jeremy had to clean up a mess. A Hunter would get suspicious of her and start asking questions. Jeremy would take care of the Hunters before they got too close. He was lucky they traveled in small groups. Sarah didn't know. She liked the Hunters. They were misfits, as she put it, like her. Jeremy just saw them as threats.

Since before he could remember Jeremy was taking care of his sister. Six years younger than he, she was always needing looking after. Their father wasn't the nicest man in the world and Sarah wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. She would make him angry and Jeremy would play defense. It was how he had gotten the broken nose. Sarah was ten when she nearly brunt the kitchen down trying to make macaroni. Jeremy had taken the beating for her. That was their relationship, Jeremy took the beatings and Sarah stayed safe.

Tracking the skin-walkers was difficult by himself. He knew the signs to look for but much past that he was lost. Finding the walkers was next to impossible without Sarah. If he could do it on his own he would. Sarah didn't need to be in the line of fire.

They sat in a dinner somewhere in Colorado. "Got anything?" he asked.

"Well it's not much and it doesn't follow the pattern they have been taking, but I think so." Sarah passed the newspaper to him. The headline read, "Family died in house of animal attack". "The family didn't have a dog, and there were no signs of break-ins, but it looks like skin-walkers."

Jeremy skimmed the article. "It happened in Utah?"

"I know, its west. Weird right?"

"They've been traveling south, why change directions?"

"I don't know, but I think we need to check it out."

The siblings finished their meals and left.


	3. Chapter 3

**Jeremy**

The next morning, the Crawford siblings checked into the motel in the small town of Blanding, Utah. Tossing their duffle bags onto the two queen beds, they began their routine.

"Get dressed and we can leave," Jeremy said, exiting the bathroom dressed in a suit. Sarah sighed, closing her laptop.

"I was kind of hoping to go as the other me."

Jeremy stared at his little sister. Since they had been together, he had taken on a more dominate role, but often she resisted. Sometimes she didn't think of the dangers her other form could present. "No," he replied flatly.

Sarah started to protest. "I don't want to hear it," Jeremy chided. "What if we run into Hunters? Then you're stuck as a dog and I'm stuck with you."

Sarah clenched her jaw and stalked off to the bathroom with her pantsuit in hand.

Jeremy lifted the laptop cover. Sarah had several internet tabs pulled up. Two were to deal with the case, records of dog attacks and home invasions with dogs. The lists were short, a small blessing, but the other two tabs worried him. One was a site about skin-walkers. Sarah had been obsessed with lore on them. In her four years on her own, she had spent most as a dog, or so she said. The other tab was a Facebook account. The profile was for a woman named Clare Raleigh. Several pictures were up showing her with her family. A simple family of four and a dog. They had a collie.

"Damn it, Sarah," Jeremy growled, slamming the laptop closed. He paced the room until Sarah appeared in the bathroom doorway. "Ready to go?" Sarah nodded.

* * *

**Sarah**

Talking with people was Sarah's strong suit, and she enjoyed it. The canine part of her connected with humans' emotions better than she or Jeremy knew. It surprised her sometimes. Like when she walked out of the bathroom to find Jeremy furious. He, of course, didn't say anything. This tended to happen a lot on cases. Sarah knocked on the door of Emmett Hardy. A man no more than twenty-six opened the door.

"Mr. Hardy, my name is Agent Black and this is my partner Agent Harrison, we are with the FBI."

"Is this about my sister?" Mr. Hardy was less than friendly. "Because if so, you're going to have to come back, this isn't a good time."

Jeremy blocked the door before Mr. Hardy could close it. "Sir, we need to speak with you."

Mr. Hardy looked at Jeremy. The two locked gazes, the Mr. Hardy pulled the door open to let them in. "What does the FBI have to do with this?"

"We were in the neighborhood and decided to help out." Sarah told the lie easily. "Now, Mr. Hardy did your sister have any enemies?"

"No, everyone liked Emily."

"What about her husband or any of the family members?"

"I couldn't tell you about the husband, never really met him." Jeremy eyed Mr. Hardy. "I mean, we didn't really get along so we avoided each other."

"Why didn't you get along?" Jeremy asked.

"I didn't do this, if that's what you're asking!" Mr. Hardy glared at the siblings.

"Of course not," Sarah said attempting to calm the situation. "Mr. Hardy, your sister had a dog correct?"

"Yeah, Buddy, why?"

"The murders have all involved families with dogs. We think it might be a connection." Sarah said. "Now, when did your sister get Buddy?"

"About a year ago, maybe two."

"In this town?"

"Yeah from the pound," Mr. Hardy started to give them the look. "What's this all about?"

"Just checking a few things, that's all. Thank you for your time."

Sarah and Jeremy left the house. "The pound, just like the others." Jeremy muttered.

"Let's go pay a visit."


	4. Chapter 4

**Sarah**

The MO was the same as the others. Skin-walkers took over local pounds and then replaced the normal dogs with other walkers. When families adopted the skin-walkers, they would change the families thus multiplying a pack by four. Those who didn't comply ended up dead.

Sarah sat on the motel bed. The room was getting humid, the steam from the shower slowly filled the room. Sarah opened her laptop. The screen was how she had left it. She opened the internet tabs and scrolled to the Facebook page.

Checking up on her old family didn't make it easier to forget them and move on, but it gave her peace of mind. The four years she had spent on her own weren't all hunting her old pack. Two had been with a family of four. Robert and Clare Raleigh had taken in the stray collie and gave her a new home. They had two sons who were very active. She missed the Raleigh's. To Sarah, they were more of a family than Jeremy. The idea struck her as odd when she first thought it. Jeremy was her brother, a true member of her family and the Raleigh's thought of her as no more than a pet, but still, they had taken her in when no one would, even if they didn't know it.

The latest post on Clare's page was about her son graduating from kindergarten. Sarah closed the laptop as Jeremy stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in jeans and an ordinary black shirt.

"I'll be back in fifteen minutes, have everything ready." And without another word, Jeremy left. Sarah began preparations. Jeremy was off to the pound. It was routine of theirs to capture a skin-walker and gain some knowledge about the pack before attacking. Sarah cleared the sitting area of everything but a chair and straps. Then she proceeded to lay out an array of sliver knifes and ammunition. She loaded her gun with silver bullets and waited.

Not five minutes later, Jeremy returned with a golden retriever. Sarah locked the door behind them, then pulled out her gun. Jeremy let the leash go and did the same. The dog growled. "Silver bullets, my friend." Jeremy grinned. "Nasty stuff for you. Now why don't you change into a more talkative creature?"

Where the golden retriever once stood was now a naked man. Jeremy pushed him down into the chair and proceeded to bind him. "What do you want?" He asked.

"We want to know about the little operation you're running." Sarah said.

"I don't know what you're talking about." The man spat.

Jeremy laughed and picked up one of the silver knifes. "Don't you?"

The man eyed the blade and began to fidget with his bindings. "No, I don't." He didn't sound as confident.

"Look, we can do this the hard way or the easy way." The man stayed silent. Jeremy reached forward and pricked the man's arm. The man winced. "That's just a taste of what's to come if you don't start talking." Again the man stayed silent.

Jeremy reached forward and cut along the man's arm from elbow to wrist. Sarah grimaced at the blood. It bothered her, but her brother never seemed fazed. The man released a howl and cursed Jeremy several times. "Care for another taste or would you like to talk?"

The man spat at Jeremy, which caused him to press the point of the blade into the man's shoulder. Another blood curdling howl was released. "Fine," panted the man. "I'll tell you." Jeremy set the blooded knife on the table. The stench of blood filled the room.

"Where is your pack leader? Who is he and who does he take orders from?" Sarah asked.

"The pack is based out of the old mill just outside of town. You'll find Michael there." Sarah let out a gasp. Michael was the skin-walker who had changed her. "As to whom he takes orders from, as far as I know he doesn't. Michael gives the orders."

Jeremy looked to Sarah. She nodded. "How many skin-walkers are there?"

"Fifty, at least," the man growled. "Michael has other packs bring in the newly changed and they get trained there."

"How long have you been a skin-walker?" Sarah asked.

"About a month." The man eyed Sarah. "Why are you hunting down your own kind?"

"Shut up," Jeremy spat before Sarah could answer. The man laughed.

"I see how it is," he said looking between us. Jeremy moved towards the man, blade in hand, and thrust it through his heart.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sarah**

Sarah was left to clean up the room while Jeremy dumped the body. She worked in silence thinking back.

_The rain poured heavy, and there was nowhere else to go. The solitary house on the road was the only shelter she could find. Sarah had traveled through fields and forests, weather permitting, and stayed in motels when it didn't, but tonight she was miles from a town and the rain had already started. Seeing an opportunity, she dumped her cloths in the field and changed into the collie. She padded up to the front pouch, which was lit, and laid down on the welcome mat. It wasn't the best condition she had stayed in but it wasn't the worst._

_Sarah thought about her home, the one left behind. It had burned to the ground and probably everyone inside as well, or so she was told. Michael had taken her and left her family to die. Granted she didn't care much for her father or brother. Her father was a drunken bitter old man prone to angry fits while her brother was a suffocating hot-head. The two didn't mix well. Jeremy protected Sarah from their father and the rest of the world. She was tied to him. Sarah felt guilty for being glad her brother was gone, but the truth was he wanted the best for her but lacked the foresight to see when things went too far._

_Sarah heard the footsteps before the door opened. "I'll just be an hour, I promise," a man's voice said. The door swung open and Sarah got to her feet, ready to flee. A tall man with short brown hair wearing a suit stood in the doorway. A woman in yoga pants and a tank top was behind him. The pair stared at Sarah for a moment._

_The man knelt on one knee and held out a hand. Cautiously, Sarah moved towards the man and sniffed his hand. She hadn't really thought about what she was doing, she wasn't used to being a dog, but it seemed right. Tentatively, the man patted her head and moved his hands to her neck and felt for a collar. Finding none, the man turned to the woman. "No collar."_

_"I haven't seen it around, it might belong to someone in town," the woman retorted. It was odd being called an "it"._

_"Or it's a stray."_

_"Robert, no," the woman chided. "We don't need a dog, and if the boys see it…" The woman didn't finish._

_"Clare, come on, it's raining."_

_"Robert." The woman folded her arms._

The sound of a car broke her trance. Sarah checked the window to see if Jeremy was back, inside she saw a black car pull into a parking spot across the lot. Two men got out. Sarah went back to cleaning.

It was night before Jeremy returned. When he entered the room, Sarah asked, "Where the hell have you been?"

Jeremy looked at her ideally. "I went and cleaned out the pound."

Anger flared in Sarah. "By yourself? Are you insane? There must have been at least half-a-dozen skin-walkers."

"More like a dozen, and so what? Their gone and you weren't in harm's way."

Sarah remained quiet. No more was said that night.

Jeremy did this more and more frequently. He kept Sarah out of the loop and it angered her. She was the one who started hunting down the pack but her brother had taken over. She couldn't let this go on.


End file.
